Where the pandemic is concerned, it seems that the resilience and recovery of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is significantly influenced by the level of their digital skills, with those companies using business management apps before the current financial crisis seeing 21 per cent smaller drops in revenue, as well as 12 per cent fewer job losses.

This is according to a new report from accounting software provider Xero, revealing that smaller firms seem to have been affected far more dramatically by the situation than their larger counterparts, with job losses estimated to be nearly twice as big, CloudPro reports.

Off the back of the report, Xero has now called on the UK government to encourage smaller businesses to make full use of the digital tools they have at their disposal, as well as introducing new policies to help SMEs weather the storm.

These policies include a digital tools tax relief, better regional internet access and an offset of technology expenses to help SMEs digitise and build resilience for economic challenges in the future.

Gary Turner, managing director of Xero, was quoted by the news source as saying: “As unpredictable as this year has been, one certainty is that digitally-enabled businesses are likely to recover faster than those who aren’t.”

“We’re calling on the government to support business recovery with funding for tech adoption and the introduction of a tax offset for expenses against technology implementation. Driving digitisation will help countless small businesses to get back on their feet.”

As tough as it has no doubt been for many SMEs around the country, further research from digital bank Starling and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards recently revealed that 80 per cent of smaller companies in the UK are confident that they’ll recover from the coronavirus crisis.

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